Unions begin nation-wide protests

Union federations of public sector workers, affiliated with the National Confederation of Unions "Cartel ALFA", have announced that, starting March 23rd, they will initiate wide-scale protests across the country.

Unionists feel that the Government"s proposed wage cuts for public sector workers are unacceptable.

Vice-president of CNS (National Confederation of Unions) "Cartel ALFA, Luca Octavian, claims that some of the steps suggested by the Government lower the starting wage for certain categories of public sector workers, while others are intended to eliminate the system of evaluation and differentiation through merit salaries and annual bonuses.

Unionists feel that there are enough laws for regulating any kind of exceptions in the case of employee performance and that a special government ordinance which gives public institutions additional powers is not desirable.

"We feel that the insistence of the Boc government in applying new wage cuts that were not previously agreed upon, during the triple-sided negotiations, further illustrates the fact that the IMF loan was conditioned by the same wage cut suggestions that the IMF has been pushing, as a means of overcoming the crisis", the vice-president of CNS (National Confederation of Unions) "Cartel ALFA" said.

For March 23rd, the unionists scheduled the following protests: 11.00 - 13.00: picketing the prefectures of all of Romania"s counties, and from 12.00 - 14.00, picketing of the Bucharest headquarters of PD-L, PSD, and the Ministry of Labor.

Delegations of the unionists will file an official protest with each of the picketed institutions and will meet with the representatives of the State.

"CNS Cartel ALFA hopes that the meetings scheduled for March 23rd, after our pickets, with officials of the Ministry of Labor and those of PD-L and PSD will result in the Government abandoning the steps to cut the wages of public sector workers and will lead to the beginning of negotiations on the law for a uniform compensation in the public sector", Luca Octavian added.

Depending on the results and the conclusions of these meetings, CNS "Cartel ALFA" and the public sector union federations, affiliated to the confederation, will decide on the next stages of the protests.